Fire destroys Aliquippa commercial building

ALIQUIPPA — An early-morning fire on New Year’s Day swept through a commercial building in the city’s industrial area along the Ohio River.

Aliquippa Fire Chief Dave Foringer said his department got the call at 4:35 a.m. about the fire raging at 101 Steel St., which houses Master Halco, a fence company, and Metalwerks PMD, a specialty metals melting and processing company.

“It was burning a long time before one of the garage doors actually failed and let the fire out,” Foringer said Wednesday.

The heaviest damage appeared to occur on the Master Halco side of the building, Foringer said, but a state fire marshal has yet to determine how and where the fire started.

Portions of the building might have to be demolished, Foringer said. “Some of it is pretty structurally unsound,” he said.

It took three hours to get the blaze under control. City firefighters were assisted by 10 departments, and Foringer estimated there were 65 to 70 firefighters working on the fire.

Firefighters had to wait to enter the building as propane tanks exploded under the intense heat, Foringer said. The low outside temperatures mixed with water from hoses caused ice to form, but other than some slipping and sliding, there were few problems, he said.

Nobody was in the building at the time of the fire, and no firefighters were injured, Foringer said.

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